M50 question about exiting lane

scoobydoobie

Just something i have been wondering about for a while now, but talking to friends im unable to get a definite answer, for example, if i pull onto the m50 at blanchardstown heading northbound and intend to exit at finglas, i stay in what i call the exit lane which is usually clear enough, can i do the maximum speed limit even if cars to my right in the driving lane/lane 1 are going slower, in effect undertaking, sorry if this has been covered but i can not find any info here, thanks for any help.

corktina

the weaving lane is regarded as a seperate road, so I would say you can undertake

scoobydoobie

No i never hinder anyone wanting to join the lane and were necessary slow down or slightly speed up to allow a smooth transition, i am a good judge of this, although i do despair at the people who knowingly plough up the full length of the driving lane with ample chances to join and then barge in at the top leaving no braking room for the driver just behind them, i had a garda car behind me one day last week and i was reluctant to what could be seen as undertake, so i just held around 80, the guard eventually pulled across and went on his way, but the uncertainty held me back.

dar83

At least you're not the people that stay in that lane all the way until the next exit and then come out of it and merge with the regular traffic, just as most people are trying to do the opposite! :eek:

They're crazy!

djimi

Its not illegal to undertake when on a slip road (which that lane essentially is). I would be very wary of doing anything resembling the speed limit in that lane however, as too many times I have seen cars make sudden and unannounced movements into the lane and you are likely to end up in a nasty accident if you travel at speed in the lane often enough.

T-Maxx

1. Head out straight away into the overtaking lane, breaking solid white lines and hatching in the process. As you do.
2. Hog the overtaking lane. As you do.
3. At the last possible moment, swerve dangerously across lane 2, lane 1 and into the off slip. As you do.




On a serious note, I see no problem with what you've described.

witchgirl26

Surely if you're staying in the lane & intend to do so, it wouldn't even be considered undertaking? What my understanding of undertaking was pulling into the left hand lane in order to go faster & pull back out in front of traffic which isn't what's going on here at all.

djimi

witchgirl26 wrote: »

Surely if you're staying in the lane & intend to do so, it wouldn't even be considered undertaking? What my understanding of undertaking was pulling into the left hand lane in order to go faster & pull back out in front of traffic which isn't what's going on here at all.

Undertaking simply means passing a car on the inside. How you get there and what you do after the pass dont come into it.

Honey-ec

You won't get a straight answer on this, mostly because the law regarding passing on the left was written long before we had such novelties as three-lane roads and auxiliary lanes. My own take is that it's far safer to just maintain your speed in your own lane rather than having to constantly change out one, two or possibly three lanes just to pass people who were going slower than you in an outside lane. You will get people on here who will go to their graves insisting that staying in your lane and "undertaking" someone is an offence akin to driving the Ring of Kerry while bladdered drunk and blindfolded, though.

witchgirl26

From the RSA website:

You may overtake on the left when

• You want to go straight ahead when the driver in front of you has moved out and signalled that they intend to turn right.
• You have signalled that you intend to turn left.
• Traffic in both lanes is moving slowly and traffic in the left-hand lane is moving more quickly than the traffic in the right-hand lane.

As the exit lane of the motorway is a signal that you intend to leave the motorway at the next exit, I would assume it comes under the turning left part above and is ok.

scoobydoobie

Thanks for the replies everyone, it seems a little bit of a grey area i think, hey witchgirl, thanks for that last bit of info, i was aware of this but im am unsure if the same principal could be applied, more so that it was written before the new layout of the m50, i at least think if it were true it might be a bit hard to convince a confused guard at the time of being stopped.

opti0nal

scoobydoobie wrote: »

Thanks for the replies everyone, it seems a little bit of a grey area

If you're doing the maximum speed, then you're not, by any definition, moving 'slowly' and should not pass on the inside. On the M50, it's also unlikely that the cars to the right are going 'slowly' either.

The exception for passing on the inside was intended for stop/go city traffic, not motorways. This meaning is clear when you read that it also provides for passing traffic stopped to turn right.

If anything happens, you'll be in the wrong, at least partly.

CiniO

corktina wrote: »

the weaving lane is regarded as a seperate road, so I would say you can undertake

Any source for that info?